Don't Give Up (Psalms 88)...

Sickness…
Stroke…
Serious accident…
On life support…can’t pull plug (law) Have to sit and wait
…everything seems hopeless (situation)

A lot of us seem to get into these situations (hopelessness)…always this way…no change

We all have to face up to the fact that life is hard. And what is worse is that the hardness is not evenly distributed. Some people seem to get more than their share, and they don't seem to deserve it. Hopelessness is not an uncommon feeling.

My message on Psalm 88 showed that believers can get depressed, and depression can last a long time.
A believer named Heman (N.L.T. Tyndale Life Appl.Study Bible) wrote this Psalm in desperation.
He seems to be suffering from a severe illness…he figured he was ready to die…
He had no hospital. He had to tough it out… hardest thing to him was not the physical pain but the emotional trauma…he was feeling abandoned and forgotten…figuring he was getting punished as he thought he deserved…


Psalm verse 1-18… This is a prayer to God about Hemans’ troubles
1-8 complaining to God in his prayer about his circumstances
9-13 asks for Gods mercy (saying if he wasn’t alive, what good is he to God)
14-18 back to his complaining

1 O LORD, God of my salvation,
I cry out to you by day.
I come to you at night.
2 Now hear my prayer;
listen to my cry.
3 For my life is full of troubles,
and death* draws near.
4 I am as good as dead,
like a strong man with no strength left.
5 They have left me among the dead,
and I lie like a corpse in a grave.
I am forgotten,
cut off from your care.
6 You have thrown me into the lowest pit,
into the darkest depths.
7 Your anger weighs me down;
with wave after wave you have engulfed me. Interlude

8 You have driven my friends away
by making me repulsive to them.
I am in a trap with no way of escape.
9 My eyes are blinded by my tears.
Each day I beg for your help, O LORD;
I lift my hands to you for mercy.
10 Are your wonderful deeds of any use to the dead?
Do the dead rise up and praise you? Interlude

11 Can those in the grave declare your unfailing love?
Can they proclaim your faithfulness in the place of destruction?*
12 Can the darkness speak of your wonderful deeds?
Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness?
13 O LORD, I cry out to you.
I will keep on pleading day by day.
14 O LORD, why do you reject me?
Why do you turn your face from me?

15 I have been sick and close to death since my youth.
I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors.
16 Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me.
Your terrors have paralyzed me.
17 They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long.
They have engulfed me completely.
18 You have taken away my companions and loved ones.
Darkness is my closest friend.

Heman figured he was ready to die and he is blaming God…he thinks life is like a living hell.
Some people nowadays have the same idea, but with a bit of a twist. We'll all heard someone say that the only Hell we'll ever see is right here on earth. Sometimes hitting ‘bottom’ seems like hell.
God's final wrath will be lot's worse that what you go through here. This life we're in can get pretty bad. Life can have many of the elements of hell - loneliness and isolation. It’s not going to be a big party…
Both hell and life can have a feeling that everything is closing in and becoming dark. And both can be filled with tremendous pain.

We are told that in hell we would be separated from God, away from His presence…suffering eternal punishment… Revelations tells us 14:11 & 19:20…tormented with burning sulphur…not a nice place to be…


There are people on earth who think they are in hell, that things can't possibly get any worse. There may be someone in this church who feels the same way.

During his illness, the writer of this passage, Heman, had experienced, as well saying to God ‘what more can happen to me???’

When life gets lousy, we figure it's always going to be that way. We think the pain and suffering is never going to go away. God has a tendency to deliver us from unbearable situations. When you think there's no reason to hope, think again.

Just like the situation with the life support system…we think we are waiting for the eventual death of our loved one…then suddenly things can change…they could come out of a coma and may eventually regain some of their strength and be able to share their relationship with others again.

God may get angry with us but He will always love us …He created us and wants us to live in harmony with Him. Nothing is life is so terrible that it will never end. If you hang on, it's bound to get better. When a loved one dies, you never think you'll get through the initial shock. It's horrible. But God can heal it. You'll hurt, and you'll cry, and you'll get angry with God, but He will heal you in ‘His’ time… not ‘our’ time.

This is one of the greatest promises in the Bible. No matter how bad things get, God can pull us out. He not only heals what's bad, he also replaces it with happiness. Even if you thought you'd never be happy again.

We should always keep in mind that the healing and the joy comes from God…We do well (financially, personally or materialistically) and start to think it's our own accomplishment, not God's gift. Our material security soon becomes a false security…(having things)
All we have is from God, our Creator…we are just privileged to be using these gifts.

What's interesting in this scripture is that Heman is considering God's interests, not his own. The questions of verse 11 & 12 are good ones. Every Christian is going to have questions about why God does things like he does. Why does there have to be so much pain before the joy comes? Why does there have to be pain at all? The questions asked are saying ‘God, what will you have if I die…isn’t it better if I didn’t suffer?’

We have questions, but the answers belong to God. Even Jesus had questions…
In John 12:27 he asks ‘Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from what lies ahead’? But that is the very reason I came.’

What lied ahead for Jesus was His eventual death.
He didn't want to suffer. But he knew his father (God) had a reason for it. So he committed himself to his Father.

Have you committed yourself to the Lord? Ask Jesus to be with you in whatever situation you are in. Just pray to Him in all sincerity your real pains and problems…he will be listening

Remember He will be available to hear the good stuff as well…don’t forget without Jesus we would have nothing…our hope for what the Bible promises us is with Jesus Christ…

This is a message I shared at our street church.